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Empire State Development announced that the number of jobs in post-production of feature films and television episodes has increased by an average of 25 percent since new tax credits kicked in with this year’s budget.

In all, there have been 173 new hires, the economic development agency said in a press release. The state recently raised the post-production credit to 35 percent for counties in Upstate America and 30 percent in the New York metro area — up from just 10 percent. The state budgets $450 million a year for film and television production credits.

Happy quotes:

“Last July, the State sent a clear message that we wanted to attract the good-paying jobs this fast-growing industry provides,” said Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Kenneth Adams. “A year later, from Buffalo to New York City, post-production business is booming. Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, the State’s film and television program is taking off – bringing new business and jobs to New York and making it the place to be for the film and television industry.”

Yana Collins Lehman, managing director of Trevanna Post and executive board member of the Post New York Alliance, said, “In the last twelve months, the Post New York Alliance has witnessed an expansion of the film and television post production industry that has surpassed our greatest expectations. All of our members, and the entire industry, owe a huge debt of gratitude to Governor Cuomo and his administration for removing barriers to job creation in the state and supporting our efforts to grow our industry. We have seen consistent hiring and revenue increases across the board since the post incentive was improved last July. So much so that a new visual effects company, Empire Visual Effects, is now doing business in Buffalo: the first of many partnerships between upstate and downstate-private business and public education.”

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